welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths in the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding and up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer BS a medals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them on this week’s episode of bets on the future Our Guest is not only a Metals Recycling expert but I’m lucky enough to call her a friend Jessica alexanderson is a children’s author and heads up scrap University kids a program designed to educate the Next Generation about Metals Recycling she’s on a mission to help elementary kids across the United States recycle a million aluminum cans and she’s well on her way this year how she got into the metals industry might surprise you especially on the recycling side she’s also a scuba Enthusiast so let’s dive in with scuba Jess on this week’s episode of best on the future I do have to say you know for the listeners that are listening at home this is a little behind the

scenes uh my guest today Jessica alexanderson and I were just talking about some of the incredible work that she’s been doing and how many cans that she’s been able to recycle through one of her many Avenues and I just I just have to say we we have a really great guest today jica alexanderson she is an author and uh you know um a would would it would professional scuba diver be accurate on that front because I feel like you do some pretty incredible things on that front as well my highest rating is Master scuba diver but yeah I like to say ocean Enthusiast um citizen scientist and just ocean lover so yeah just do um crazy amount of scuba diving underwater photography just trying to raise awareness of like the good stuff I see and the bad stuff just because so many people aren’t divers and they have no idea what’s going on and just want to say thank you for coming on you and I have known each other for a couple years at this point I think um and so you know it’s it’s a little uh interesting for me to to

interview you because I feel like I know some of the questions but I’m very curious to to what answers um are going to come up into it so uh to get started I just have to say you know um do you mind just giving like a little background of like who you are and kind of how we got to know each other for sure I first just want to Quick say thank you so much for having me on and taking the time and to all your listeners for listening uh this is so exciting and yeah I just love all of the work you’ve been doing Jennifer you’re just like the most amazing person and so and lucky to be here um so my name is uh Jessica Alex Anderson but it’s too long so I go by scuba Jess because nobody can spell alexanderson um and I’ve been moving West my whole life so I was born in New York uh grew up in Utah in the middle of the desert why didn’t recycle anything move moved out here to Seattle Washington back in 2008 and um I started diving in 2014 and um

yeah and that’s the diving is kind of what sparked like this whole thing for me like just knowing that I really wanted to help the oceans and make a change and I had no idea how to do it really until I met Brad um but yeah so I’ll get into that in a second but I when I was in Utah um only recycling I really remember doing was um collecting bullet shells bullet casing from the um Firearms or my dad was the Firearms instructor for the sheriff’s department and so like as kids we would go do shooting practice and then he’d give us a bucket at the end and we go around pick up all the bullets and he’d go like Cashman at the store so that’s like the only recycling memories I have and so it’s metal it gets recycled yes all metal could be recycled that’s one of the things we when I learned that I’ve been trying to like spread the word so I have a shirt here that says all metal can be recycled if you’re watching this version Mr Ferris Mago our mascot a second but yeah um what

else about me let’s see uh love scuba diving total fish geek love Star Trek uh so every dive is like an away Mission and I’m down there with my own Air Supply and space floating around there’s aliens like it’s just amazing I’m total nerd um love baseball go see Al Mariners and can’t wait for baseball season to be back um what else uh that’s about it just mostly love scuba diving going to concerts going to comedy shows and and ever since I started like getting into the metal recycling industry like I had no idea I was actually a scrap geek this whole time until my first trip to a scrap yard and like the light bulbs went off and I’m like well this is amazing so yeah well I do have to say in your previous career you probably did move some scrap metal and just didn’t really realize it I I I moved a lot of metal um so I I used to work for everen shipping for 15 years so they’re a Taiwanese company based on Taipei um I started started in the Salt Lake City office back in 2007 in documentations

I was typing in BLS of all the scrap metal and all of the other stuff um and then I did the traffic department so making bookings for containers and shipping them all over the world and then when I moved here in 2008 for the sales department um some of our biggest customers were Calbag um oh man like so many scrap metal shippers um Metro metal stter like all those guys but um but our number one exports out of the US are uh paper scrap metal scrap plastic scrap and then all the raw Commodities so we did a lot of hay out of Pacific Northwest onions apples cherries frozen fish lots of french fries uh don’t need get me start on Christmas trees uh yeah so but I I felt like I was shipping all these containers of metal and I had like really no idea what was in the containers until I met Brad and he was one of my customers at Evergreen that’s how I met him uh he shipped used car batteries to be recycled in Korea and all over southeast Asia and other metal um items to be recycled and he

was always my nicest customer uh never yelled at me which is so rare in shipping because people are always freaking out because ship is late ship is early you’re out of containers the truer got flat tire like stuff that’s out of my control but I’m like a problem solver people would call me every day with some sort of insane problem and be like just I need your help and I’m like okay let me see what I can do um and yeah and so um it’s very stressful shipping like just I was getting an ulcer and then when Co happened the whole entire world broke shipping chain just just disaster and so um I go scuba diving in my free time to de-stress after work and just forget about all that Madness and um and then that’s when I started like doing underwater photography and focusing on the good stuff but then I just see on this trash in the ocean so I started doing a lot of cleanup Dives to get all as much out as we can and whenever I do cleanup Dives I always um usually do it by the boat

ramp which is right by an aquarium and so there’s usually kids around so we always like to put a big harp out and lay out all of our ocean treasures and take pictures of it and so one of those days I took a picture of it and when I was talking to Brad the next day he’s like oh what did you do this weekend so I showed him a picture and I’m like I got all this stuff out of the ocean and he’s like oh that’s cool you know all that metal could be recycled right and I’m like I know you can recycle the bottles and cans like I don’t think anybody wants a rusty old chain or crab pot or fish hooks and Wells we do yes we definitely do yeah I know that now but back then I was like uh crap and I feel so bad for all the metal I threw away in the garbage like my whole life because I did not know about scrapyards and like people in Utah and most places just actually go to the landfill and pay to dump all that stuff when they could

actually go down the street and make money from it and so I’m like if I didn’t know this a lot of other people probably don’t know this either oh absolutely I find it fascinating um that people don’t really realize how much metal gohost to landfills that could have been recycled the upside is is that there are companies that are out there there are more and more companies out there that are starting to go back and you know um mine landfills essentially to get out some of the metal that we’ve already produced so that we don’t have to mine additional um metal from the earth uh which is a lot more carbon intensive energy intensive Etc so um for those listening at home uh Brad rud over is the Brad that she is referencing Brad and I know each other because he used to be um a Custer of mine when I was living in Seattle where uh Jess lives in that area today and so it’s just kind of this weird you know small community but yet it’s such a large industry and yet Jess and I had no idea that we lived in

the same city for for a while um and so Brad is one of the individuals that recommended we we get introduced and it’s just it’s it’s a really cool world to see that that your love of the ocean and of recycling things you know you’re you’re put you’re Translating that into into your your work now like this is this is what you do now which is a very fascinating pivot and it’s awesome to see that people can really take what they’re passionate about and turn it into you know a livelihood right and it’s and it’s benefiting a lot of people it’s it’s pretty crazy and I just say go for it like I did not know what my passion was until I started scuba diving like I always thought something was missing and I knew like I love going to concerts and comedy shows and I love Star Trek but like I’m like what is that thing like I know there’s a thing I missing and as soon as that like that first dive breathing underwater and I was like this is it and then when I saw like my first crab go by

and my first fish like I was instantly hooked and I’m like this is what I’ve been missing my whole life and and then working at Evergreen for 15 years was like a really great company and amazing but I just kind of knew like if I don’t leave now I’m going to either be stuck like you’re either life or like you’re stuck there forever and you’re going to retire there or like like it’s so scary to think about making a change but I knew that like the oceans need my help and like if I don’t do it now I’m never going to do it and I don’t want to go back to school to be like a marine biologist or figure out some other degree like I just want to like figure out what to do and I didn’t know like what that job even was until I called Brad R over one day of Detroit scrap and scrap University and I called him one day and I was like hey Brad are you hiring and he’s like uh sure he’s like I hire you in a second to run my shipping department but is

that what you want to do I’m like no I did that for 15 years like I am done with shipping like I don’t even want to see another container ever again um and he’s like uh okay well what like what would your dream job even be which is such a hard question to answer like I don’t know people just think about that like what if you could be doing anything right now like what would it be like for me for some reason it was like such a hard thing like I knew I want to help the oceans but I’m like what is that job and I’m like well I know it has to start with kids because when I was a kid I didn’t learn about that you could recycle this metal and I’m like okay well it has to start with kids they could learn young that it’ll make an impact they remember like Smoky the Bear like I still have my D shirt from when I was a kid I was a d child like if you something in school like you remember that forever if you have a cool presentation um

and so I’m like okay Brad I know it has to do something with kids I want to help the planet I don’t even know what it is and he’s like oh that’s interesting that you said that because he has two really highly adorable daughters Ellie and Lexi they were six and three at the time of this phone call yes so this is Ellie Brad’s daughters she’s six if you can see in the picture she’s a little adorable blonde girl who’s wearing a a Pearl Jam shirt writing a unicorn um saving the world one one can at a time but and for those that are listening um Jess is holding up one of the books that she’s written this one is titled the girl who recycled 1 million cans which you can find online multiple bookstores Etc it’s it’s fantastic our website kids. scrap university.com or bookbaby.com our books are printed in the US in New Jersey so we want to find a local printer but yeah when I had that call with Brad he had this story idea written on on paper with his best friend’s wife Shazia who’s an elementary school

teacher up in Canada and so the two of them kind of like wrote the story together based off of Brad’s daughters if you ask his kids how do you make money even when they’re like two or three years old they’ll say cans like they already know like you can and they’re so cute and so he’s like okay Jess I’m gonna hire you and you’re gonna run our kids division of scrap University because scrap University is like this most amazing class that anybody in the metal recycling nry should take uh Jennifer’s one of the instructors she’s fantastic um and yeah it’s a really cool online class you could take it at your own pace you can log in whenever you have access to the internet go in do a couple modules learn about a couple different medals and so when we initially were starting we’re like oh we should make a little class for kids version and then we decided like like we could still do that but we want to focus on the books first because we think little kids actually love books and yes yeah like they like learn it more and like

um like Brad was reading his kids bedtime stories and they’re all just like fluff and like they’re not learning anything and he’s like I want to I want them to have a bedtime story story that’s actually fun and cute that they enjoy but they’re actually also like secretly learning information and so yeah so uh our first book The Girl recycle 1 million cans came out last year in September of 2022 actually on Star Trek day September 8th love that it wasn’t accidentally placed there was that something I can’t imagine who picked that date and then this year when our new second book just came out recycling adventure to the scrapyard I really wanted it to also be on September 8th but we were a little delayed some of the um some of the files so it’s like a week after but still September so that’s kind of cool I I have to say from somebody that’s um you know uh like outside looking in I think what you’ve been able to do in the past really year has been quite incredible um you’ve had some pretty large companies partner up with you on on

on this um from recycling companies to equipment companies um you know metal manufacturers it’s been pretty awesome to see what you’ve been able to do um and I want to get into the can contest in a little bit but like I mean if you if you’re open to sharing like some of those large companies that you’ve been able to work with like by all means feel feel free to share oh man I would love to like we’ve been having just the most amazing support from like the metal recycling industry and then like yeah the companies actually make the cans and the aluminum and like Cogan I don’t know you guys if you’re watching this but um Cogan is this amazing company from Germany um but I’ve got to meet them at the is convention where I met you last year in Nashville and um we’re like I gave him a copy of the first book and I’m like hey would you guys be interested in being in our second book like we’d love to put you right on the front cover and they’re like that sounds amazing uh so yeah they’ve been super supportive

like Brad’s like one day he’s like he calls me up he’s like Jess can you ask senan if they want to like be involved in our book and I’m like okay so Brad always has like really crazy ideas and he’s like just do this get Pearl Jam I’m like okay and so like the first book Ellie’s wearing a Pearl Jam shirt because I like reached out to Pearl Jam and I totally thought that was going to go to a black hole somewhere and they actually replied because we’re like helping teach kids about saving the planet and they’re very into that too um and then some of our other huge supporters have been like oh man one of the coolest days of my life was my friend Todd Ashton uh worked at Nelis which is like the largest can like aluminum can Baker um and they he sent me I sent him a copy of our book and I was like hey do you think nollis would like be interested in this because they want their cans back because it’s 95% less energy to make a can out of recycled aluminum than the whole process

so much better for the planet and we only recycle 45% of cans which is crazy so he was like yeah send send a book this is awesome so then what one day he sends me this picture of Fred a 10 foot robot made out of recycled aluminum that’s like this big huge robot statue in the nelas plant in um I think it was in Georgia um and Fred is reading our book and he like like yeah it took me a while to like prop this book up there without like falling off and like I I’ll have to show you the picture but it was was like when he sent me that picture that was like one of the coolest things of my entire life like I can’t even believe that like we somehow got this book into reality and now like Nelis has it with this huge robot and like yeah so they’ve been amazing um I’m working with the can manufactures Institute which represents like the largest aluminum uh can makers like sheet rollers and can producers so like Crown constellium Tri arrows Kaiser Aluminum Nelis Logan aluminum um oh B’s down in

Texas so like all these huge companies and they all love our books and they want to help teach kids about Recycling and so like they’ve all just been super supportive Oh chupan is amazing call it chupan they’re fantastic so yeah just these huge companies that like I don’t know like I look at their website one day and then the next day like somehow like I get a magical message from them like on LinkedIn and like hey do you want to have a chat I’m like yes I do like I don’t know how this is happening but it’s like super cool so it’s really cool to see what you’ve been doing um you and Brad have that mindset of just like well somebody has to tell me no right like I have to be able to ask you know and if nobody asks then like we’ll never know and so the fact that you and Brad just go out there and are like yeah I’m gonna ask Pearl Jam to see if they would allow you know their logo um on there would they want to get involved I mean that that’s incredible not a

lot of people would um take that initiative and it I think it’s just really cool to see what you’ve you’ve been doing I know you and I can see each other right now as we’re recording this and yes there will be a video edition of this podcast but I do have to say for those that do not know Jess you absolutely need to find her on social media because she posts some really wonderful photos of the ocean of what she’s doing but also she gets sent these photos and these videos of where her book ends up and I mean it’s been in politicians hand and it’s been in like you know just such a wide ranging group of people it’s been really cool to see like across the aisles like it’s it’s like this book can really just bring people together because it’s it’s it’s not really I would say preaching like anything it’s just educating in a really fun way the next generation of of metal can be recycled and it also can be profitable as well like there is an exchange there it’s it’s a fun way like little kids have like

lemonade stands like they want to make money they want to save money for their you know their piggy bank or their candy fund whatever they’re doing these days um and yeah it’s just fun teaching kids oh yeah I just I’m sorry I just need to interrupt my own self and just talk about Jenny at trivan packaging real fast because she is the most amazing lady that I’ve met through so like she saw one of my posts on LinkedIn and reached out and she’s in Rotterdam and she’s a huge try also and yeah she um um that was like probably the other most amazing day of my life she sent me a photo of John Carrey holding my book and I’m like what she got a selfie with John Cary at the um the cope like the climate Summit in Dubai a couple months ago uh she went to that to and she’s the head of sustainability at trivia she’s just the most amazing lady and she actually came out to Seattle for a month with her four adorable kids her family her husband I got to meet them all and show them around Seattle

and um it was during the All-Star game that we had here in Seattle so I got to like go be part of the Green Team and go collect everybody’s cans between Innings which is so fun and um so so Trivium has been a huge supporter um we actually put Trivium in our second book there’s like a little can that has Trivium logo in there but they make I think they make like a million cans a day in their Factory um aluminum cans and um with reusable with lids and steel cans like Soup cans and everything so we have like a little Ferris versus non-f Ferris page in our second book and they got a little Trivium can but um yeah we want to teach kids like hey all of these metal items in your house you’re surrounded by you’re actually surrounded by metal at all times you might not know it but once you read our book you’re going to start looking around seeing all the metal things and then realize that all that metal could be recycled for forever and like you recycle your Christmas lights they could be your next

iPod charger like you know like it’s just going to keep going forever and ever and so um I love that this book is geared towards like I’d say what like First to third graders like the elementary school Range I didn’t know what the difference between Ferris and non feris was um until I Gra uated college right like when I was in my first job treating scrap metal right yeah yeah I didn’t really like I mean I knew like I was typing on BLS and stuff but I didn’t really like think about what it was but yeah if it’s Ferris it will stick to a magnet so we have little magnets that we give out to kids and it says let’s stick together and recycle and all metal can be recycled um and yeah if it’s non Ferris it doesn’t stick to a magnet and it’s worth more money um which is a little harder for recycling because it doesn’t stick to a magnet some more like Ferris actually gets recycled because they could just put a magnet get sucked out y um but the ferris is worth more money it’s paid for by the

pound usually so if you save your Christmas lights your wires your usb chargers your headphones you can go cash those in if you want to make a big huge tin foil ball save all your Hershey Kiss wrappers your yogurt Lids all that metal rinse it off turn it into a huge ball see how big you can get it you can cash that in like we’re just teaching kids like don’t don’t throw any metal in the garbage and it’s very confusing for people because when you look at your blue recycle bin if you even have one on the top of it will say like all these things that you can’t put in there like your wire hangers or your tinfoil or your Christmas lights and so people are like oh I can’t put that in my recycle bin right and then they just put right into the trash and so that’s like huge problem that we’re trying to solve and we can solve this problem it is and part of the reason why there is you know those issues of you know on the on the cans that say you know you can’t recycle this

you can’t recycle that it’s not because it cannot be recycled it can be but it’s because the equipment the local municipality the the company that that’s able to pick up your your blue bin at the end of the driveway if you will they just don’t have the processing equipment your local metal recycling facility has that ability so you do have to go a little bit out of your way to to get that done but again like what you’re talking about like see how big you can get the ball to go um if you can’t put that in your blue bin then just like you know create your own mini scrapyard yes until you’ve got time to take it there um I do W to um I have to give you a shout out for what you’re doing right now because this is the inaugural year of the contest that you’ve been doing multi-state contest mind you um so I just want to give you a chance to explain what’s going on there because I keep going to your website and I keep seeing the tickers and like they keep going up and up

and up and so I just I I think what you’re doing is fantastic so I want to give you a chance to explain um what you’re doing with um a variety of schools across the country awesome thank you oh so I I do want to say one small thing I thought we were over 250,000 cans the other day but we had a small miscalculation because somebody turned in some Alum 590 PBS of aluminum wheels which is awesome um but that weight got counted towards cans so we had to kind of back it out but the school’s still going to get the money so anyways we’re at we’re at 249 445 cans since mid October I have eight elementary schools across the country mostly in states with pretty sad recycling rates um and these adorable little elementary school kids are collecting aluminum cans um we teamed up what we do is we team up elementary schools in their local scrapyards a scrapyard brings a big huge bin puts in the school parking lot kids bring cans from home in a garbage bag and they fill up the bin and then at the end whenever

the bin is full the scrapyard takes it away weighs it gives me the totals I update my website at the end of the year they’re going to get a big fat check for all the money for all the cans they recycle and then um we have prizes so working with Ken manufacturers Institute they’re so fantastic um they donated the money um so first place gets 3,000 second place is 1,000 third place is 500 and then all of the students at those schools um all of the third graders got a free copy of our book fig girl old cycle one million cans awes isn’t that so nice of them so they donated those books to the third graders and the third graders went around and read to all the other classes in the school so everybody at the school actually got to hear the story um hopefully like we can get more funding and like I my dream would be like every kid at the school gets their own book to take home because then they can read it with their families show their friends and neighbors their grandparents and then everybody will

be excited start saving more cans for these students because it’s a win-win like the school’s getting money you’re helping the kids the kids feel so happy because they’re helping the planet and little kids want to make a difference and I feel like if you just give them the education make it fun and easy make it a game have easy access to recycling right there at their school like these kids are going to solve this recycling problem um we only recycle 45% of cans in this country and most of that is from the 10 states with a deposit and so like there’s so much room for improvement but like this is a problem we can solve like this is solvable like we can’t solve some of these other huge problems right now which I wish we could but like let’s just knock this one off and then go on to the next thing um yeah so I have uh I have my schools here um I let me just give them a little shout out first place so the actual ranking system uh for the contest to make it fair because some schools only

have like 20 students and some schools have like 300 students uh for third grade we wanted to do cans per student that got the free book so that’s kind of our metric so um currently um Yankee toown Elementary and Indiana is in first place they have 46 third graders and they have recycled 40,000 um 600 cans so that’s 883 cans per student wait now I have to hold on that that seems like a lot and I know that there are others that are like larger they even yeah um when did you start this this year like so mid October uh we wanted to start October 1st but there’s some sort of delays that’s getting all all those eight schools and all the scrapyards to agree on a date and then scho schools always have like crazy holidays and stuff so um so not too long not I mean and spoiler alert for when this podcast comes out but that’s basically only like three months that there’s been 40,000 cans just for one sched yeah yes from one school so so for since mid October we’re at 200 we’re basically 250,000 cans

since mid October isn’t that insane like we’re a fourth of the way there our goal is to get to a million by May so I’m like if we can keep this up we can get more um like ading more media coverage like I feel like all the news should be covering this story like this should be on the Today’s Show Good Morning America like this is a story that actually matters little kids are recycling and they’re having fun and they’re learning and these little kids all took the can pledge we have them take a little pledge they stand up take a put their hand in the air I pledge them or throw a can to trash the rest of my life and then they throw their can in the recycle bin and they get a sticker we have stickers that say recycling is like magic we have stickers that say I took the pledge did you they could put these on a reusable water bottle and so then when people are like what’s The Pledge little adorable kids are going to teach everybody that they should never throw their can in the garbage um

and yeah um Texas has just been going bonkers they’re amazing they’re at 55,000 cans and they have the smallest bin they have like a just one tiny little Gaylord box like in the inside of their school so we’re trying to get them a bigger bin yeah but it’s just every week it’s like overflowing they’re so cute um Mississippi has knocked it out of the ball park they are at 72,1 100 cans just for their school and so like just like my top schools are like Mississippi Texas Kentucky Indiana like these are states that are not known for recycling and this is not like a political thing like this is you’re helping your kids you’re helping your local school you’re helping our planet like it’s just so fun and I’m so proud of all these students I can’t even handle it and it’s really impressive if you want to find out uh what your recycling rate is for your state you can go to the ball courp website they’ve got a really great resource on there they do um independent research studies of the recycling rate for um beverage containers uh and they

do it by State and it’s very interesting and you’re you’re spot on those states that you have these recycling fundraising programs in are usually on the lower end of recycling rates so it’s incredible to see that these kids are excited about this bringing it in I’m excited to see at the end of the year how much money overall you’re going to be raised because you mentioned additional thousands of dollars that are going to be donated to these schools that’s on top of what these kids are already going to get um back from the scrapyards yeah the scrapyard is going to pay them for all the aluminum plus families can bring other items like their aluminum wheels or their Christmas lights any metal item if you’re going to go to the scrapyard and bring cans and add it to the school’s account you can add donate to that scrapyard any other metal items but that that weight won’t get added to the total I’m going to do better but the school will still get the money um but we just want to teach people like hey like you’re washing dry or just die don’t throw

that in the garbage you can cash that in and if you want to help your local school you can you can or you can just keep the money yourself whatever it’s all good um and yeah next year we would love to expand to even more States and more schools um these schools we specifically wanted to pick because they’re mostly in areas that don’t have access to curbside recycling so like these states just or these areas they’re just throwing their cans in the garbage um the school in Indiana had a bar and restaurant down the street from their school and so one of the teachers called them he’s like hey what do you guys do with your cans or like throw them in the garbage they’re like would you consider saving those for our school and they’re like yeah sure so like we got a bar in Indiana to start recycling um the school Texas reached out to like the bowling alley the skating rink they’re saving cans the local news um they got a reporter to come interview them at their schools so now the whole Newsroom in Waco Texas saving their cans like

it’s just pretty amazing like how this is just the beginning and like the fire is growing and like it’s just getting bigger it’s like a good happy fire um yeah I can’t even I’m like so excited every day I just keep seeing the most adorable pictures of these little kids Recycling and like my heart explodes yeah you do a really wonderful job of um spreading the message the education of it and uh again find uh Jess online on Instagram you’re on LinkedIn um Facebook I believe correct um on Facebook Instagram and then scrap you kids short for scrap University kids oh I gotta I know I’ve been talking a lot i’ call out real fast some of our amazing scrapyard Partners too and say recycling fantastic alter trading um I have oh my gosh I have so many sod medals in uh uh Pennsylvania the green guys they’re so great um Cumberland trading Parish recycling oh iskowitz metal is SIDS and nbit um they’re working um they’re actually in Memphis Tennessee but they’re helping our school in Mississippi because it’s like a half hour drive and so they’re not even in the state of

Mississippi but they’re collecting cans from Mississippi which is super cool um just the most amazing scrapyards and when I call them up and I say hey we’re teaching the Next Generation to not throw metal in the garbage like the scrap yard’s like 100% yes what can we do to help and so like thank you everybody oh CMC recycling in Texas they’re amazing so uh yeah just got a level of scrapyards they’re fantastic and it’s just a fun way to get their word out into their local community about like what they actually do and like free advertising and like it’s it’s all good so hopefully more scrapyards want to jump on board next year and get this in more States from the marketing side of things with recycled media I think you are doing such an incredible job on helping these businesses connect with their communities too because think about the metal recycling companies how often are they really you know connecting with the Next Generation with the elementary schools with the middle schools like with the parents that are in that area I think it’s just a really wonderful way to grow your business

to help educate the Next Generation and then also give back to your community I mean it’s all around a really wonderful win-win situation for everyone involved yeah thank you so much for helping me get the word out about this and yeah if any scrapyards would like to buy our books and give it donate to their local schools or the local library or give them to the Boy Scouts Girl Scouts whoever like all these kids need the books we’re we’re self-published we’re just doing there just the three of us doing this here one will see me but uh yeah we need help and we need these big companies to just support the little guys and just get these books out to all these kids because if these kids learn it from a young age never throw their metal in a garbage like you’re going to have lifelong customers and then they’re also going to learn about relable jobs in the recycling industry that they would have never known about and like I love and encourage the scrapyard um members to go to their local school and read our books to the kids bring

a hard hat bring a safety vest bring magnets and just uh show a little clip of like what you actually do at your scrapyard show them the Bor show them the car Shredder show them all that stuff like little kids are going to freak out and then they’re going to realize that like there’s all these job opportunities that they would have never even known about um oh I also like um when we do these contests um list like any metal items you want anything you don’t want so people aren’t showing with random stuff that you can’t recycle like some people propane tanks whatever or microwave why but put that on there and then also any job openings you have at your scrapyard or or in your industry throw those on there or throw your website on there and just say hey like all of the parents at the school are going to get this free advertisement and some of these parents might be looking for a job and like it’s a good way to just get the word out oh and oh also one last breaking news we just are signing up for isri

for scrap University kids so that’s exciting too just shout out to isre because they’re amazing too so The Institute of scrap recycling Industries for those that might be in a different sector of the metals industry and may not be so much on the raw material side as well yeah and then oh yeah thank you for that and then U um also just another call out to our company what we are a little bit about our future plans um I’ve been talking a lot and I didn’t even get to ask you questions but um we do want to do four books total to show the full circle of metal recycling so the third book will be the melting process so we’re going to show like all that metal getting melted down turned into rebar and in and and sheets and all of that and just show how cool it is we are maybe hopefully going to be working with new cor steel for book three which would be super cool um you would be excited about that and then um the fourth book we want to show the manufacturing process so like those old Christmas

lights are this Daddy’s old truck that they shredded them book two is now a new truck or a washer and dryer the old cans are new cans or an airplane or an iPad we just want to show the kids like all these possibilities that if you don’t throw your metal in the garbage it has new life for forever and yeah so we want to do those four books and then we’re also um going to be starting a cartoon um series called heavy metal Elementary where our kids are little metal recycling superheroes that have powers based on their favorite medals and they’re going to go travel around the country and um feature different scrapyards in each episode and different kind of metal and how to recycle it in each episode and then also obviously feature really cool music and bands because we’re very into music here um and like cool landmarks so like we want little kids to just be learning so much really cool knowledge and short mini bite-sized package and just go teach their parents all the stuff that we never learned as kids nope I I didn’t I have a finance

degree and I uh learned all this uh when I was in my 20s yeah so it would have been a little more helpful uh when I was a little younger so I I I really do appreciate everything that you’re doing I know we’re running out of time um is there anything else that you would want to share about what you’re working on or any advice for like the Next Generation just anything that you’re you know La last few yeah last words uh just keep an eye out on our our website kids. scrap university.com for any updates hopefully we’ll have um announcements on like when the cartoons coming out or our future books um and yeah just uh if you ever have any questions or interested just hit me up I’m always open I love to jump on calls I’m a big talker so love to chat you up um and yeah no and just keep up the great work out there and oh if you do get our book up you can do um hashtag scrap your kids I’d love to have people take the can pledge like I would love people to

just buy the book take the pledge like film yourself and nominate like a friend or a cousin or an aunt and uncle to take the pledge and like let’s just keep this going um and yeah let’s solve this can recycling crisis like little kids are going to do it 45% we could do better let’s get to 100% let’s not wait 50 years like let’s just do it like in five let’s why not I you’re really going to be making a big impact in the Next Generation and um I’m looking forward to local PTSA meeting um soon to also spread the word if you are interested in learning more please visit Jess out on um her website her Instagram her LinkedIn find her um it’s really wonderful and especially you want to follow along to to see when they hit the 1 million cans this school year so it’s going to be very exciting please follow along and also you know you’ve got Earth Day coming up as well so this is another great opportunity to get involved help the Next Generation understand that metal are tied to the environment and everything in between with

the economy so it’s it’s a really all around great lesson so Jess thank you so much for coming on I really appreciate it um and uh I look forward to seeing you hopefully in Vegas and yeah see Vegas and yeah hopefully we can do a follow-up episode in a while and once we get to a million cams or something and next time I’ll actually get to ask you questions because I was talking too much thank you so much and thank you to all your listeners for listening and have a great day and live long and prosper I would like to end with that